Sixx:AM-The Heroin Diaries Sndtrk

...when McCainia runs wild on you!!!!

after hearing nikki sixx on the show last week, i checked out some of the sixx AM stuff online and thought it sounded ok. i picked up the album yesterday and saw the sticker for the book so i walked next door to the bookstore and got it as well.

i started reading the book then popped the cd in and call it what you want (marketing gimmick or marketing genius) but they are both really surprisingly good.

i usually don't care for side projects and am not a big crue fan but the cd is some of the most powerful, personal lyrics i've ever heard. the music and production are well done too. it actually is a soundtrack to the various phases and stories nikki describes in the book, but is good as a stand-alone album as most people into rock music have heard the crue saga or seen the behind the music (the one where nikki talks about snorting a line of ants w/ ozzy)

as for the book, i love the layouts, pics, drawings, commentary from insiders who witnessed him destroy himself. it's very candid and sometimes gives a douche chill. basically, nikki found a journal in storage last year and begin reading it and decided to let friends and such read it and remember those times, then put it all together in this book. he began the journal on christmas day 1986 and it continues through the end of 87.

some of the more cringe moments for me so far have been:

1) calling his dealer, no answer, going to his house, nobody home, digging through garbage to find a bag with a "substance", cooking it and shooting up, later finding out the stuff was crystalized brown sugar.

2)needing a fix, pulling into a denny's, sitting on the floor of a stall, using a cap from a glass pepsi bottle and "shitty toilet water" to cook, shooting it up, rinsing his syringe in the "shit water", later reusing said syringe.

3)hiding in his closet everytime he used because the police "were outside in the trees and turning into vapor and floating under the door"

i'm only 40 pgs in and i'm enjoying it so far. it's an easy read for those who usually don't read books with words.